Shawn Hall I had the opportunity to guest on The 5 Best Films of Every Year Ever Podcast to share my five favorite films of 1905.
If you’re not familiar with the podcast, the very knowledgeable Tristan Ettleman is on a quest to explore each year in cinema history and produce a list of the best films ever made. Starting at the very beginning of cinema in the 1890s, he has brought on numerous archivists, historians, and enthusiasts (that’s me!) to share their own favorite films and expertise on various aspects of cinematic history.
With my picks, I tried to make a representative sample of the year, selecting films from various genres with a couple of personal favorites. To give you a little preview of the films we discuss on the pod, here are my five picks:
1. The Misadventure of a French Gentleman Without Pants at the Zandvoort Beach
You can’t talk about 1905 without mentioning a chase comedy! The earliest surviving Dutch film incorporated plenty of locals in an old man’s attempt to dodge the police after a charge of indecent exposure.
2. Revolution In Russia
Pathé, weeks after the event, dramatized the famous mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin using stimulating miniatures and sharp editing techniques, twenty years before Sergei Eisenstein.
3. A Trip to Salt Lake City
Mirroring the many cartoons poking fun of polygamy at the turn of the century, this Biograph comedy features the earliest surviving depiction of Mormons onscreen. I’ve already written in-depth about how this film was inspired by current events at the time.
4. The Night Before Christmas
Edwin S. Porter brings the famous Christmas poem to the screen with a quaint storybook quality in a way that George Melies must have been proud of.
5. The Nihilists
Years before D.W. Griffith immortalized the Biograph name, the company and director Wallace McCutcheon Sr. produced high-quality dramas such as The Nihilist that strove to tell more complex and emotionally impactful stories.
So don’t miss the the podcast episode where Tristan and my discussion on these films eccentric films and the state of cinema at the dawn of the Nickelodeon era.
If you want to submit your own picks to be included in the list released during the 1905 season finale, you can submit up to five films released in 1905 on the podcast’s website.
